Nelson and Spencer present on gamified instruction at national conference

By: Elizabeth Nelson

Elizabeth Nelson, reference and instruction librarian at Penn State Lehigh Valley, and Brett Spencer, reference and instruction librarian at Penn State Berks, presented at The Innovative
Library Classroom (TILC), hosted this year at William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in June.

Their session, “Argument Architect: Developing a Research Boardgame to Teach Thesis Development and Source Evaluation”, discussed how they created a hands-on boardgame experience for ENGL 15 students learning basic research skills. Argument Architect invites small groups of students to construct a skyscraper with a topic as their foundation and a thesis as the
cap – in between, students must choose appropriate sources from a pile of source blocks by evaluating the title, citation information, and relevant quote from each source. Groups who
construct a building with at least three source “floors” that are relevant to their topic and support their chosen thesis are evaluated by their librarians and disciplinary faculty, who act
as “building inspectors”. Students explain their choice of sources and the “inspectors” help them see potential flaws or additional questions and provide guidance as needed; groups that
pass their inspection choose from an ever-changing Prize Bucket and may immediately build a new structure for a different, contradictory thesis or using different sources. This cooperative game seeks to help students increase their knowledge in the “Authority is Constructed and Contextual” and “Research as Inquiry” frames from the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education.

Attendees of the presentation learned how the game was created and had the opportunity to play a round themselves, using the real boardgame (and playing for real prizes). Overall,  feedback from attendees was positive, with requests for the game’s materials and instructions to be shared online as the most common comment.

As an additional point of interest, the session was led as a hybrid in-person/online presentation. Elizabeth traveled to the event and guided the in-person game session, but Brett was present virtually and able to participate in the presentation itself and engage with attendees during the Q&A portion. Support for hybrid presentations is still growing, but will hopefully become more commonplace as we look for ways to reduce the environmental impact of our physical travel while still participating in and developing our research through national and international venues.